This widely-shared photograph depicts the very fancy mansion in Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas, that once housed members of John and Clara (nee Easley) Belcher. The Belchers didn't live in Gainesville very long, but left some historic traces in North Texas. And because this photograph has been shared but not researched as much, I thought I'd give it a go!

Near the tiny settlement of Dye in Montague County, Texas, stands a 1,294 feet high "mound" called Jim Ned Lookout along Jim Ned Road. So I became curious... who was Jim Ned? Turns out, there were three Jims -- Jim Ned and Jim Shaw, both Delawares navigating their way through Texas, and Jim Ned, a literary figure.

Americans identified and described a Panis village at the Red River that was not necessarily Pawnee.

At the corner of NE 2nd Avenue and North Washington in Ardmore (Carter County, Oklahoma, Chickasaw Nation) stands this three story brick apartment building.

Avery in Red River County, Texas is a bike trail town that still has an intact business district in its downtown, but some (most) of the buildings are no longer in use.

A muggy Summer day's adventure into downtown Dallas revealed what Bonnie Parker, partner in crime to Clyde Barrow, called "the Great Divide."

Where's Frog Level, you ask? You may know it better as Rodessa, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, an oil boom town that went bust.

When I came across a photo of Mrs BM Howard 503 Bryan Street, with a date range of 1900 to 1909, I was surprised -- there was a name and an address.

Enjoying the history of Burkburnett's "Oil Pool" using Lidar!

Texarkana started life before 1860 by way of the steam railroad and a steam packet boat.

The mouth of the Red River was at a place that no longer exists: Red River Landing in Pointe Coupee Parish.

This map is a detailed representation of the geopolitical situation at the beginning of the Seven Years War (1756 to 1763), a conflict also called the "French Indian War" in the United States.

The history of the house at 301 East Lamar in McKinney includes a murder and a live burial!

William Whitlow's 3-D tombstone at Oakwood Cemetery in Fort Worth is truly an in-your-face kind of memorial, and the story behind it really encapsulates Fort Worth's short but colorful history.

A map from 1835 shows Cameron's Grant and a proposed boundary line, both at the Red River, and both unsuccessful.

Taking a road trip on the old Jefferson Highway is a treasure deserving of preserving.

US 75, once known by different names like the Postal Highway, King of Trails, and the Gulf Highway, can still be driven on its original routes from Kansas to Galveston.

The beautiful stone ditch that encompass little Stuart in Hughes County, Oklahoma, Choctaw Nation is a complete, and relatively intact, historic WPA project built to control malaria.

I'm not sure of the exact date it was established, but by 1868, the Chickasaw Manual Training School for Boys at Tishomingo was administered by Joshua and Lucretia Harley

At the turn of the 20th century, the town of Lehigh in Coal County, Indian Territory (now, of course, Oklahoma) was really something.